The last time Felipe Grimberg shared a space with Fernando Botero was exactly a year ago, in September 2022, in Monaco. The 90-year-old teacher from Antioquia appeared calm and clear, but he was already tired while walking and talking. At his side, Sophia Vari appeared with a mask as always in the last half century, loving and gentle. They talked about a collection of watercolors that Botero had painted on paper. Gone are the days when he created large-format works. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which had caused stiffness in some parts of his body and difficulty speaking. But he painted. He painted a lot. Four or five hours in his workshop.
Master Fernando Botero. | Photo: Guillermo Torres Reina
He entered Botero’s life motivated by stubbornness and a love of art as colossal as the sculptures of the Antioquians themselves. A very young Felipe, barely 20 years old, approached the then 54-year-old painter with the idea of him to help market his works. He dreamed of becoming a renowned art dealer. However, many years would pass before Botero, who was already experiencing world fame, accepted this mission and placed it in his hands.
Felipe was jointly responsible for the successful management of the painter and sculptor. “When I started making art, I bought on the secondary market, at art auctions in New York and Paris, where there were Latin American works. And when he started selling to me, I already knew his work well, so it was easy for me to place it on the market of gallerists and collectors. “I approached him at many galleries that didn’t have access to his works because he always kept them very secretive,” he says.
Fernando Botero Angulo. | Photo: MONDADORI PORTFOLIO/Massimo Sestini
Grimberg assures that the master “did not sell commissioned works, but only what he wanted to sell.” “You simply told him whether you wanted a female figure or a still life, for example.”
Since then, he has been the person who has sold the most works by the Colombian: around 500 in total. The most expensive was a work from the 1960s that sold for $3 million. Also monumental sculptures, whose owners paid approximately the same value.
And the number sounds high, but “over the years it has been found that owning a Botero adds prestige and is a good investment.” “40 years ago a small sculpture cost $30,000, today it’s $500,000,” says Grimberg .
Master Fernando Botero. | Photo: Guillermo Torres Reina
Now, says Grimberg, “one has to wait and see how his works will be reassessed after his death.” But the truth is that his immense legacy is invaluable.”